Promise Ring
by yourealoverimarunner
Summary: A one shot. Danny gives Mindy a promise ring. Mindy kicks him out. (This fills a prompt a little anon left for the TMP Hiatus Fic-a-thon, so here you go little nonny. Bless you!)


"Here."

"W-what is this?"

"Open it."

"It's a- Wow! It's... it's a ring! It's a ring?"

"Yeah!"

"...Is this a proposal?"

"Nah! No! No, look. It's, it's a promise ring!"

"W...what?"

"A promise ring! It's a promise ring!"

"**...Get out.**"

"What?"

"Get. Out. Get out of my office right now-

"Mindy-"

"Close the door behind you. Be on the other side of that door in less than three seconds. Get. Out."

"Min-"

"Get out of my office, Danny!"

_What?_

He doesn't really know what just happened right then. He thought...

He's confused.

Because, like... and he thought...?

And apparently, that's not what she...?

Yeah, he's lost.

Completely.

He turns to knock on her door again, but flashes back to her kicking him out less than a minute before and decides against it. So he just stands there. Confused. Perplexed. Flummoxed.

"Is everything alright, Dr. Castellano?" Betsy chirps, standing up from behind the reception desk.

"I... I don't know."

"Umm... okay." She looks just like he feels.

"Yeah... Okay." He shakes his head a bit, hoping for some clarity to drop in, but when none comes, he just treks back to his office and shuts the door.

She's pacing now, hands on hips, doctors' coat flapping due to the ferocity of her trying to walk out whatever it is she's feeling.

Because she is feeling _a lot._

Like, _so_ much. And she has a _bunch_ of words for Dr. Daniel Castellano, she does. Because how dare he? _How dare he?_ How dare he walk in here and just drop this on her so suddenly, so _casually_? _"Here, here's a promise ring."_ Are you kidding right now? What.. what does that even mean? Like, what- are we in sixth grade or something? Is your mom coming to pick you up from soccer practice in ten minutes? Is this your last resort before you take off for the weekend to go to Boy Scouts camp or something?

She could literally go over to his office right now and just... like grab him by the collar and just... she could take his little Italian head and just... _freaking shake_, right off his little shoulders, she could...

"Ugh!"

She stops pacing for a moment to catch a breath, because she has definitely worked up a sweat from walking so hard and fiercely. _Olivia Pope makes that look so easy._ She takes another look at the small black box sitting in the middle of her desk and exhales. If she wasn't confused before, she definitely is now. Last week when she was over at his apartment having dinner, she had brought up the idea of them perhaps getting a place together or him moving in to her apartment, and he was all stammering and sweaty and saying that he thought it wasn't that great of an idea and he was basically tripping over his feet trying to get out of the conversation, which she didn't really see as that big of a deal. They had been together for almost eight months and she figured that moving in together was the next step in their relationship. And she understood that he was probably hesitant because he wanted to keep his own space- she kind of wanted to keep hers too- but she never got a chance to express that to him because he started acting weird and started rambling about them moving too quickly and then they had gotten into an argument, which resulted in her taking a cab back home at like 1'o'clock in the morning and not sleeping the entire night. She assumed they had both gotten next to no sleep the next morning, when they both stormed into the office with curt hellos and bad attitudes, which made them both unbearable in the office that day. But they had gotten over that (there may or may not have been a secret rendezvous in the hot pipe room that helped resolve some issues and relieve some tension). They had moved on.

Right?

Well, they hadn't really approached the topic again: they had mostly just apologized for yelling at each other and basically overreacting. They gotten past this little blip in their relationship and everything had just gone back to normal. Okay, not exactly. Everything was pleasant between them, but pleasant in the way that you are when you're uncomfortable but you don't want to say anything about it because being uncomfortable is better than being separate and lonely. She lets out a sigh and sits back down in her chair, placing her head on the desk and banging it lightly. She really doesn't want to argue with him. She can't take another night of sleeping alone. It would be different if it were anyone else but this is Danny. He has a way of cuddling her at night that helps her rest easy. He has a natural warmth that radiates from him (which she accredits to his tendency to always sweat) that she has gotten used to, and she knows that's a selfish thought, but she doesn't care. When they sleep together, not even sexually (that's a whole different story, because listen here- she digresses), everything just... fits. It feels like contentment, like the perfect thing.

She lifts her head up and glances at the box again. Reaching out for it, she opens the tiny cube and inspects the ring. It's gold and almost looks like one of the crowns from Lord of the Rings, when she watched like 30 seconds of it that one time for Cate Blanchett. It's all swirling delicate vines and it could have easily gone the ostentatious route but it didn't. It's actually really gorgeous, and it's just enough to fit into her style without being too plain.

_Frick._

She closes the box and slips it into the pocket of her coat. Standing, she crosses to her door and opens it.

"Hey, Betsy. Is Dr. Castellano in his office?" She watches the perky brunette pop up from behind the desk. "Yep! Hey, Dr. Lahiri. Is everything alright?"

Mindy gives her a smile, which Betsy quickly returns. "It will be in a few." And with that she knocks on Danny's door.

He's leaning on the edge of his desk, arms and legs crossed and thoughts flying, when the knocks come. He immediately knows it's her and for a moment, he wonders if he should even open the door. She did kick him out after all, and he's just a little bitter about that. But he remembers the last time they got into an argument- last week- and he doesn't want a repeat of that. Him, tossing and turning all night. Sleeping alone. Missing the curves of her body pressed into his, wanting to smell that citrus-y spicy smell of her hair. He's not doing it again. Well, he'd like a repeat of what happened after the argument, but just without all of the crap beforehand. So, he makes his way to the door, and taking a breath, opens it.

"Castellano."

"Lahiri."

If this is how she wants to play, well he's going to give it right on back to her.

"May I come in, please?" He steps aside and allows her in, closing the door behind her. He turns to face her, and she has taken his spot on the edge of his desk. He leans against the wall. "So?" he asks.

"We need to talk."

"Go ahead."

A look of befuddlement crosses her face before her sass is back. "Excuse me?"

"You said we need to talk," he shrugs. "So talk."

"Alright. Let's chat about this," she quips, pulling out the ring and placing it on the desk.

"What about it?"_ Stay cool, Castellano._

She scoffs, followed by an eye roll. "Daniel, I did not come in here to play this little game with you. We are both adults here so let's just talk about this."

"Okay, you start then."

"No. You start."

"You start."

"I'm not starting. You start!"

"I'm not starting either! You start!"

"Danny, please! I'm tired of saying start, it beginning to sound weird in my mouth."

He sighs, exasperated already, and walks over toward her. He purposely moves into her personal space and notes her swallow just a bit, and smirks. He grabs the ring and looks directly at her.

"Mindy," he sighs, "this is a promise ring."

"Yes, I've gathered that much, Benedict Cumberbatch."

"What?"

"It's a Sherlock j- whatever. Yes, it's a promise ring. Why are you giving it to me, Danny?"

"Do you not want it?"

"I never said that. Why are you answering a question with a question? Why did you give me the ring? It's a simple question."

"Is it?"

"What?"

It's his turn to swallow now. He steps back, adjusting his sleeves around his forearms and clearing his throat. When he's sure he has enough distance between them, he speaks. "Mindy, I..."

With her staring at him like that, eyes all big and hopeful and holding, he seems to lose steam. He presses on. "Mindy, I'm giving you this ring because I want to make a promise to you. The night we argued, I was all over the place. I was... shocked. I was flustered. I was scared. And I know I said that night it was because we were moving too fast, and yes, that was part of it, but... the real reason was because..."

She's open now, waiting. "Yes?"

"When you walked out, I felt it again."

"Felt what again?" she asks, taking a step towards him.

He watches her for a moment and then says it:

"Alone."

He sees the word wash over her, and she gives him a gentle look to continue.

"You were asking to be with me, move in with you, and I pushed you away. And immediately afterward, I felt that loneliness come back that I hadn't felt in so long. Not having you around, even just for that one night, messed me up. Sometimes I forget that you want me just as much as I want you and that scares me. I find myself wondering why, why someone like you would want someone like me. I can be so...'

"Sweaty? Surly? Closed off? Opinionated?"

He shoots her a look. "Sorry. Continue."

"Yes, I can be all of those things. But in spite of that, you still stick around. And all you wanted was more time with me. So, I went out and purchased this ring for you." He moves from his position on the other side of the room to right in front of her, and lifts up her right hand. Removing the ring from the box and sticking it back into her coat pocket, he slips the ring onto her right ring finger. "I got you this ring as a promise. A promise to hear you out. To stick around. To put up with you, because you know you can be a handful." She rolls her eyes but smiles. "This is a promise to give you something more in the future and spend this time building with you..." He kisses each of her fingers one by one and then moves to her left hand, "until it's time to put an official ring on this hand." He kisses all of those fingers too, and then moves his hand up to cup her cheek. Her lays a soft kiss on her lips and then pulls back to look at her. Her eyes are closed and there's a grin slowly spreading across her face.

"Damn, Castellano. That was some straight up game you just laid down."

"Jesus Christ, Mindy," he remarks, trying to contain a smile of his own.

"You want to marry me?" she sings, opening her eyes and beaming. She wraps her arms around his waist. "You want to make me Mrs. Mindy Lahiri dash Castellano? Because you know I'm a successful woman, I have to keep my last name too."

"Yeah, I figured as much. And I don't want to marry you right now but... you know, like in the future or something." He pecks her lips, before walking her back against his desk and deepening the kiss.

She breaks it to talk (of course).

"So does this mean you'll move in with me?"

"How about we find our own place?" he responds, moving in to kiss her again. She turns her head though, and he ends up kissing her cheek. She's too excited. "I knew you would say that! I have to go get my phone, I already have like six places bookmarked that I think you're going to love!" She moves out of his embrace and heads towards the door.

"Are you seriously going right now?" he exhales.

"Pssh. Not after your whole spiel," she exclaims, locking the door. "I was going to see if you wanted to go to the hot pipe room, but I think that's too far away," she smiles removing her coat and letting it drop to the floor. A smile breaks across his face as she walks back over to him, engaging him in another kiss.

He's not confused one bit about what happens next.


End file.
